When you are a new business, one of the most important things you have to tackle is knowing how to promote brand awareness. Otherwise, you won’t reach as many customers as you could have.
If you are looking to start a business and are wondering how you can build up your brand recognition, this article will help you settle on some foolproof techniques.
Choose Your Brand’s Identity
The very first step to increasing brand awareness is to show that you have a brand personality. But how would you create a personal brand?
The most obvious aspect is by creating a visual logo that will attract your customers. Put thought into this, as you will likely have to stick with it for a long time. Make sure to also pick a color scheme that you will use across your marketing posts, websites, and more.
Having defined branding elements such as specific fonts, icons, and color schemes will immediately set you apart from your competitors. They will also make it easier for your customers to identify you.
Employ Visual Marketing Techniques
Visual marketing helps you promote brand awareness by using more creative designs that appeal to the audience. Think along the lines of videos, infographics, slides, photography, and illustrative social media posts.
In fact, infographics are shared and liked 3x more than any other form of content. By employing more visual marketing techniques, you are reaching more people who will get to understand what you do by scrolling through your posts.
People love looking at things that attract the eye, so if your post employs colors and creative fonts, it will definitely be more engaging than a blank page with a few words written across the center.
It’s also a good technique to make important information easily digestible. If you are marketing a healthy version of pet food, you can lay out the science behind why your products are better in an infographic. This will break down your information into a form that’s generally understandable, and your customers can remain engaged while learning.
Create Interactive Content
Using interactive content such as videos, surveys, contests, giveaways, and more will naturally attract more people and increase their excitement when encountering your brand. When you start a business, consider employing more interactive techniques that will encourage your viewers to share your posts and help you reach more people.
Contests and giveaways, for instance, explicitly encourage people to tune in and share your page. Not only that, but it sparks an interest in what you are selling and makes you more memorable as a business.
Give Out Samples or Free Trials
Who doesn’t like free stuff?
One of the most effective ways of improving brand awareness is by providing samples of your products. For instance, if you sell face masks and perfumes, you can offer smaller packages of these products. It will give your customers a chance to experience what you are selling and judge for themselves the quality of your products.
If you are selling a service (both online and physical), you can provide free trials with a time limit of around a week. Again, this gives your customers a chance to experience what you offer for themselves. It is likely going to make them want to come back for more.
When you are marketing your samples or free trials, make sure you emphasize that you are providing them for free – with no strings attached! At the same time, it’s important to note that you will still have to put your best foot forward with your products and services, even when they are free. This is because they will be instrumental in retaining your customers.
Provide Rewards for Loyal Customers
Customers are always more receptive and satisfied if a business provides them with continuing rewards. You spend a lot less by maintaining existing customers than by reaching new ones, so it’s always worth the effort to keep reaching out to them.
You can have a loyalty program that you can promote more to your customers so that they will feel motivated to purchase more items. You can always offer your customers the chance to sign up for a loyalty program upfront (as soon as they purchase an item). Otherwise, you can issue membership cards that accumulate points which they can exchange for products in the future.
Understand Your Target Market
The best way to improve your brand awareness in your target market is to understand what your prospective customers want and look for. You can employ marketing strategies such as social listening, where you go through social media platforms and examine what your target market is saying and what they are interested in.
You can also go through a competitor’s analysis, where you evaluate your competition and see how you can stand out with your products.
Alternatively, you can engage your existing customers and see what they think by requesting customer reviews or surveys. By asking them what they would like to see more of, you can find newer ways to engage with your customers and expand your reach in the target market.
Make sure that you keep the surveys or feedback questions short. Customers will want to spend very little time working on these forms, so they may skip answering if there are too many questions.
Distribute Your Content Across More Platforms
If you are only using one social media platform, your customer reach will be a lot more restricted than if you’re sharing your content across different platforms. Make sure to choose several platforms where you find your target market is the most active, and work on creating consistent content. Businesses who post more than a few times a week tend to see greater engagement than those who only post once a week.
When distributing your content across the platforms, use search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. These will help you use the right keywords and phrases to reach as many customers as possible.
Reach Out to Bloggers and Influencers
An interesting take on digital brand awareness strategies is by reaching out to bloggers and influencers. These individuals will likely have a big following, which means that your brand can get promoted well through them.
Reach out to successful bloggers and influencers who work within your industry, and ask them if they are open to representing your brand. In return, you can provide monetary compensation, free products, and more. You may have to go through a few negotiating steps to settle on a deal.
Make sure you’re familiar with their work and that you understand how your own products will fit into their pages. This will ensure that your investment is worthwhile and that the promotion will reach your intended audience.
Engage With Customers Online
Beyond posting consistently, you can keep improving brand recognition by remaining active online to engage with your customers. If somebody comments on your post, replying to them will go a long way in showing that you appreciate their input.
If somebody posts something and tags your company, make sure to also comment. When you receive negative inputs, you can apologize and offer some form of compensation. On the other hand, when it is a positive comment, thank them!
Whether you’ve received a positive or a negative review online, being active in engaging with your customers will increase customer satisfaction and make it more likely that these customers will keep buying from you.
Be Active in Your Community
Being active in your local community is a great way to reach more people offline. You can hold events or sponsor and host other people’s events. These will increase your company’s exposure and also indicate that your business values community awareness.
If you are going to events and representing your company, you can use wholesale screen printing to showcase your logo and brand more directly by creating customized merchandise. This way, your company’s brand will be more memorable for the guests.
Methods to Highlight Brand Awareness for Your Company
There are plenty of ways you can enhance your brand awareness. The most important things when considering your branding strategy are knowing how your company can differentiate itself from the competitors, and knowing what your customers are looking for. You can also employ visual marketing techniques to improve your reach and provide incentives for your customers to keep engaging with your brand.
There is no end to the techniques you can use to improve your brand identity, so choose the ones that match your company the most! Building brand awareness is a big deal.
Did you find this article on building business brand awareness to be helpful? Check out our Marketing section to learn more about bold biz branding on a budget.
